Kentucky Downs to 'Double Down' in Pursuit of G1 Status

After decisions from the American Graded Stakes Committee this week, Kentucky Downs continued to add to its slate of graded stake. With the Mint Ladies Sprint Stakes (G2T) elevated and Music City Stakes (G3T) for 3-year-old fillies joining the graded ranks, Kentucky Downs now has nine graded stakes for its seven-day all-turf meet.

But track management acknowledged keen disappointment that Kentucky Downs still awaits being awarded its first grade 1 stakes, those designated as the best in America. To lure more grade 1 winners to its stakes program, Kentucky Downs last year committed to increasing the total purse available to $1 million, including Kentucky-bred purse supplements, for any of three stakes if a grade 1 winner competed. That was the carrot that lured grade 1 winners Campanelle  and Dalika  to the track in Franklin, Ky., where they won the Ladies Sprint and Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf (G2T), respectively.

Because they were not Kentucky-breds and ineligible for Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund incentives, purses for those races did not reach $1 million.

"We've done everything expected of us to get one of our grade 2 races across the finish line to grade 1 stature. We put up the purse money, produced the field sizes and got the performances," said Kentucky Downs vice president for racing Ted Nicholson. "That said, we will double down in 2023 in our commitment to getting our stakes to the top. We are determined to be not just a popular destination for American horses, but we are going to step up our efforts to attract overseas horses."

The Ladies Sprint was one of only four existing graded stakes in the country to be promoted and one of the three bumped to a grade 2. The Music City was among just four new grade 3 events.

The 2023 Fan Duel Meet at Kentucky Downs will showcase four grade 2 races. The others are the $1 million Kentucky Turf Cup Stakes (G2T) for older horses at 1 1/2 miles, the $1 million FanDuel Turf Sprint Stakes (G2T), and the $600,000 Franklin-Simpson Stakes (G2T) for 3-year-old sprinters.

The track's season next year runs over seven dates from Aug. 31-Sept.13.

"Certainly we're very pleased to have been awarded our eighth graded stakes in the past seven years," Nicholson said. "And it's very gratifying to gain graded status for such a young race as the Music City, which clearly has filled a gap on the national stakes schedule. It all speaks to the tremendous support we've gotten from owners and trainers."

Kentucky Downs is coming off another record-shattering meet with a record $80,175,928 wagered over seven days and part of another, with heavy rain forcing the postponement of one-weekend card and part of another. A record $17,863,177 was paid to horse owners in purses and KTDF supplements. Purses at Kentucky Downs are buoyed by historical horse racing gaming revenue.

Kentucky Downs' short meet had a giant-sized impact on the 2022 Breeders' Cup entries. Twenty-three horses who competed at Kentucky Downs, including 18 who ran this year, were entered among the 14 Breeders' Cup races Nov. 4-5 at Keeneland. To put that in perspective: Of the 177 horses entered for the Breeders' Cup, 10.7%  ran at Kentucky Downs this year; 13$ overall had run at the track at least once during the last three meets. 

To crunch those numbers more: 16 horses among the 101 total entries—15.8%—in the Breeders' Cup's seven turf races participated in the 2022 Kentucky Downs meet.

The ascent of Kentucky Downs' graded-stakes program

2001—Calumet Turf Cup becomes a grade 3

2017—Ladies Turf becomes a grade 3

        —FanDuel Turf Sprint becomes a grade 3

2018—Ladies Sprint becomes a grade 3

2019 —Franklin-Simpson becomes a grade 3

2021—WinStar Mint Million becomes a grade 3

        —Calumet Turf Cup becomes a grade 2

        —Franklin-Simpson becomes a grade 2

2022—Big Ass Fans Dueling Grounds Derby becomes a grade 3

        —AGS Ladies Marathon becomes a grade 3

        —FanDuel Turf Sprint becomes a grade 2

2023—The Mint Ladies Sprint becomes a grade 2

        —Nelson's Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey Music City becomes a grade 3